


Reawakening

by elfofthedarkside



Series: The Universe Where Jackie Exists [4]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, Canon Divergence - Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), POV Alternating, Past Torture, author doesn't know jack shit about medical stuff, but like also respect his boundaries, but like it's bucky so what did you expect
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-16
Updated: 2019-05-16
Packaged: 2020-03-06 13:18:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18851860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elfofthedarkside/pseuds/elfofthedarkside
Summary: It's been three months since the airport fight. Tony is convinced by his PA that he might be able to use some of his memory tech to help reverse some of Hydra's conditioning of Bucky. She also convinces him to swallow his pride, for god's sake, he was brainwashed, try to forgive him before I smack you.





	Reawakening

**Author's Note:**

> Guess who's been writing again? I for some reason am in a constant state of "what is going on I know I just wrote something down but I honestly couldn't tell you what" so if this entire series sounds like someone wrote it while sleeping and/or dissociating you know why.
> 
> Draft title: "bucky + jackie au redux (third gdamn version or some shit ik just roll w/ it)"
> 
> Fun fact: I published an older version of this to my old ff account like three years ago but now I actually feel somewhat satisfied with it also it was only like the first half of what you see now. Anywayyyyyy enjoy.

_ “Steve!” _

Oxygen flooded Bucky’s lungs as he slowly came back into consciousness. The first thing he noticed was the amount of white in the room. The next was the woman standing over him.

With a needle.

Bucky’s eyes widened. He grunted, trying to summon the strength to throw his body away from the seeming attacker.

“Whoa!” The woman grabbed his weak body with one hand, holding him on his back. “Shh. Calm down. I’m not going to-- oh.” She glanced at the syringe in her hand. “I guess not a fan of needles?”

Bucky’s breath was ragged. His heart pounded as he managed to keep eye contact with her. “Wh- who…?” He whispered, with vocal chords that felt like they hadn’t been used in a while. “Where…?”

“Shh,” She repeated. “My name is Jackie. You’re in a secret facility owned by Tony Stark--”

At the name, something surged within Bucky once more. Danger. He reached back to swing at her, but…

“What-?”

She glanced down at the place where his arm should have been. “Oh, yeah. Tony’s been meaning to fix that. He wanted to wait until you were awake, though. Sorry, I guess you wouldn’t be on good terms with him?” She reached down, needle coming closer to his good arm.

“No-”

“Hey, hey!” She put her empty hand on his forehead. “It’s okay. It’s just for pain. I’m running a couple tests on your brain waves, and I don’t want to hurt you.”

Bucky forced himself to be still. His breath was still uneven.

“Jackie…?” He managed.

“Yep,” She smiled down at him, then suddenly pinched him.

“Ow!”

“Sorry. It’s to distract from the needle.” Her eyes shimmered with mirth. “So… James Barnes. You’ve been in cryo for about three months. You were moved here by your friend Steve so we--me and Tony--could try to reverse some of the brainwashing you’ve got going on…” She tapped his forehead, not noticing how his teeth clenched and body tensed. “We took you out last night, and it took about 12 hours for you to wake up. So far, nothing has happened. As soon as you’re ready, I’d like to bring Tony in here to watch me set up these nodes. Steve should be here, too. You’d like to see him, wouldn’t’cha?”

Bucky blinked. “Um… I guess… yes, I would… Who are you?”

She grinned. “Sorry. Getting ahead of myself. I’m Jackie Bateman. Tony needed an assistant, and I had the skills. So I work with him.  Which means I get to help you. Yay.”

\-------

Bucky looked awful.

It wasn't just the fact that his hair looked much too long and unkempt for the man he once knew, Steve observed. His eyes. They were empty. And full of fear.

Steve knew getting choked up wouldn't be helpful in the slightest. So, he squared his shoulders, took a deep breath, and held out his hand. “I'm Steve Rogers.”

“I… I know.” Bucky stuttered. Steve breathed a sigh of relief.

“I’m glad.”

Without warning, he leaned down and gave his best friend a hug. Bucky tensed up, but slowly returned with his one good arm.

“I missed you,” Steve whispered.

“I would like to say the same,” Bucky replied, “but time doesn’t work like that in cryo.”

Steve grinned, hiding his watering eyes. “There’s my Buck.”

Tony stepped forward. “Hi. I, um… I’m sorry about your arm. I’ll build a better one.”

Bucky was instantly wary. “Tony.”

“I…” Tony stared at the ground. “Look, I’m still pissed about my parents. Who wouldn’t be? But I… I know how it feels to not be in control. And I know it sucks. So…” He held out his hand, still looking away. “Truce?”

Bucky hesitated only for a second. “I’d like that.” He grasped Tony’s hand.

Jackie cleared her throat. “So… care to give me a hand?”

Tony managed a smile. “Yeah. Let’s figure out what’s going on in there.”

Steve took a step back, letting the two science geeks do their thing. It was interesting to watch Jackie. She was so much like Tony. Scarily, sometimes. She had an old, battered letterman jacket tied around her waist, different knick-knacks hanging out of the pockets; short hair falling slightly into her eyes.

He was slightly in awe of how much she cared; her concern for Bucky, even though they’d just met, was clear. She’d been the first one to propose this idea, the first to volunteer to be his on-call caregiver. It was touching, truly.

She’d definitely help Bucky get better.

\-------

“Patient is waking up from his sedated state after being examined.” Jackie paused, glancing at the stirring form of James Barnes before continuing into the microphone. “It has been 2 hours since he went under, and 20 hours since he was taken out of cryogenic sleep.”

His expression twisted slightly, right hand clenching into a fist. Jackie took a mental note.

“Unclear whether he is cognizant of his surroundings yet, though he seems to be responding to at least auditory stimuli at the moment.”

“...stop…”

Jackie stopped. She looked down. “Mr. Barnes. I’m sorry for all the fancy talk but these records have to sound semi-competent.” She tried for a smile.

“Not… not… experiment…” His eyes were open now, though his words were still slurred. Jackie cocked her head to one side.

“I’m sorry, Sir?”

“Please don’t… talk like that.” His gaze met hers. “Don’t like it. Not an experiment.”

The realization dawned on her. “Oh. Oh! I’m so sorry, Mr. Barnes. I can, um…” She paused. “If I said your name instead of ‘patient’, would that… is that better?”

He thought for a moment, coming back to his senses. “Maybe. If you don’t mind?”

“Yeah, no, of course!” She nodded. “Mr. Barnes is awake and speaking clearly, if a bit tired-looking still.” She glanced back at him. “Is that better?”

He shifted, beginning to sit up before she handed him the remote to move the hospital-like bed out of a reclined position. “I… yeah.”

Jackie moved so she could get his full attention. “If there’s anything else you’re uncomfortable with, Sir, just let me know. I’ll do everything I can.” She paused. “But you do have to tell me. As great as I am, I can’t read minds.”

This time, she earned a small smile from him. “You can call me Bucky. ‘Mr. Barnes’ is kind of… weird right now.”

She returned the smile. “Okay then, Bucky.” She picked up the bottle of water on the table next to the microphone. “Do you need a drink? It’s been a while since you’ve had any food or anything.”

Bucky nodded, letting her unscrew the cap before taking the bottle and sipping carefully. “Little dizzy,” he remarked, taking another small drink before passing it back.

“Probably your body telling you it’s hungry.” She grinned. “Mr. Stark says you should go easy, but you’re welcome to have food as soon as you feel up to it.”

“I think I feel up to it.”

“Okie-dokie!” She held up a finger, turning to the microphone. “I’m going to get Bucky some food, then take note of any irregularities and report here later.” She switched it off.

“Now, what would you like?”

\-------

Lists. Seemed like Jackie’s whole life was made up of lists. Subjects to study in order of frantic imminence, items to hide before leaving a room, pills to take, food to eat, basic hygiene to fulfill. Now that she worked for Tony Stark, the number of lists had increased even moreso. Times of the day to check in on him, people to call and cancel appointments with, types of alcohol to softban, rooms to manually check for security breaches.

And, of course, The List. Surprisingly, it was starting to help. Bucky was currently Item Number One, and since humans aren’t really things that can be “completed” she figured she’d at least always have one thing left.

One additional list now; she and Bucky slowly worked on it through “breakfast”. Avoiding certain triggers would be a must, at least until they figured out how to undo some of the damage upstairs, but with some he expressed great enthusiasm in working to get over. The needles were one. He agreed, with a begrudging expression, that he couldn’t afford having a panic attack every time they needed to provide him with certain medicines or check his blood for abnormalities. Jackie also worked on her own personal list regarding these things; a list of research topics. How to correctly interact with a person who had undergone severe trauma, how to introduce potential triggers in a non-hostile environment in order to try and work through them, how to approach sensitive but necessary topics, etc. It was a longer list than she thought it would be.

In the end, though, it would be worth it. Even now, the broad smile Bucky wore when she pulled a bag of plums from the fridge was enough to erase any doubts. She could do this. She could help. Maybe she couldn’t fix, but she could help.

And sometimes that’s enough.

**Author's Note:**

> I literally am so unfocused on everything all the time I want to cry but that would take effort so I'm just in this sort of disconnected depressive limbo thing and I hate it :) It's a miracle I managed to write the last section at all (the rest has been written for about a month now). Thanks for sticking around if you found this I really appreciate it <3


End file.
